Following the Reconstruction era, southern states and groups like the Ku Klux Klan enforced segregation and intimidated black citizens, keeping them through various ploys from registering to vote, or if registered, from casting votes that counted in elections.
Registration obstructions were comprised not just of literacy tests, although these were the most common. Registration offices kept odd hours, and required different documentation for black registrants than for white ones, who could cite a "grandfather clause" providing for automatic registration if an ancestor had been enrolled. Poll taxes punished poorer citizens who couldn't afford them.
III. Event Represented by the Artifact/Significance
Prior to passage of the federal Voting Rights Act in 1965, Southern (and some Western) states maintained elaborate voter registration procedures whose primary purpose was to deny the vote to those who were not white. In the South, this process was often called the "literacy test." In fact, it was much more than a simple test, it was an entire complex system devoted to denying African-Americans (and in some regions, Latinos) the right to vote.
I. Artifact Name: Literacy Test Used in Alabama
Following the Reconstruction era, southern states and groups like the Ku Klux Klan enforced segregation and intimidated black citizens, keeping them through various ploys from registering to vote, or if registered, from casting votes that counted in elections.Registration obstructions were comprised not just of literacy tests, although these were the most common. Registration offices kept odd hours, and required different documentation for black registrants than for white ones, who could cite a "grandfather clause" providing for automatic registration if an ancestor had been enrolled. Poll taxes punished poorer citizens who couldn't afford them.
II. Image: http://www.crmvet.org/info/lithome.htm
III. Event Represented by the Artifact/Significance
Prior to passage of the federal Voting Rights Act in 1965, Southern (and some Western) states maintained elaborate voter registration procedures whose primary purpose was to deny the vote to those who were not white. In the South, this process was often called the "literacy test." In fact, it was much more than a simple test, it was an entire complex system devoted to denying African-Americans (and in some regions, Latinos) the right to vote.
IV. Date and Place
Alabama ~ 1965
Southern states completed the test
Click here to view the test: http://www.crmvet.org/info/litques.htm
V. Multimedia Found on the Internet
http://www.crmvet.org/info/lithome.htm
http://www.stormyscorner.com/2008/01/alabama-literac.html ~ can you pass the test? You have 8 minutes and you can only miss two in order to vote!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ2j8zSxPgU
VII. Map
VIII. Curators